Whether you believe that where the money goes indicates voter intentions or not, it is interesting to note that betting on Day 14 of the 2010 federal election campaign on 30 July 2010 was going Labor's way on the NSW North Coast in much the same way as it was going Labor's way on Day 39 of the 2007 federal election campaign on 21 November 2007.

Even in Cowper and Lyne (which did not fall to Labor in 2007) recent betting is running along the lines of the final result in the last federal election. #

Part of a 26th July 2010 7.30 Report interview over at Aunty ABC on the subject of Australia's immigration policy:

KERRY O'BRIEN: Now let's talk about immigration, which you've put further on the map in this campaign at the weekend and where you've been accused of being tricky. Isn't it true that the peak immigration figure of 300,000 in 2008, the calendar year 2008, the first year of the Rudd Government, that you've described as unsustainable, was actually achieved under the immigration policy of the Howard Government?

TONY ABBOTT: But the government that was in charge was the Rudd-Gillard Government, and the following year, 2009, we had 277,000 people come in, and what I'm proposing is that the immigration intake has to be sustainable, that's why I've proposed a maximum of 170,000. And I'm being honest and upfront about this, Kerry. Julia Gillard tried to have a population discussion last week without being fair dinkum with us. She tried to pretend that you could discuss population without also discussing immigration. She wouldn't tell us what she wanted to do with immigration, and I challenge her to specify a figure.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Well, you said last Saturday that immigration in the last year of the Howard Government was actually 200,000, - was about, I think you said, 200,000.

TONY ABBOTT: In the last seven quarters of the Howard Government.

KERRY O'BRIEN: The last seven quarters was 200,000?

TONY ABBOTT: Well, I think it was about 210,000 in the last seven quarters of the Howard Government.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Well according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it was actually 244,000 for the calendar year in 2007 and rising. Correct? And the Howard Government was in office for 11 of those 12 months.

TONY ABBOTT: I'm not disputing your figures, Kerry, but circumstances have changed. Australia's cities are choking on their own traffic. We were booming in the Howard years. We have gone through a global financial crisis. There has been an economic slowdown since then. The public no longer support immigration the way they did under the Howard Government. We've got to rebuild support for the immigration program, as happened under John Howard. The Australian Government has gotta be in charge and the program has got to be in Australia's national interest and the public have gotta perceive it that way.

KERRY O'BRIEN: But isn't it also true that the immigration figures have already come down sharply from that peak of 300,000, a peak of 300,000 under Howard policies and will keep falling sharply in the next couple of years, probably below 150,000, no matter who is running the government?

TONY ABBOTT: Well, I don't know what's gonna happen under Julia Gillard's policy because she hasn't told us what her policy is. I've told you what my position is. It will come down to under 170,000 in the first term of a Coalition government.

KERRY O'BRIEN: But let's just nail this down, because even if Julia Gillard doesn't change her policy one iota, and they have already changed the policy with regard to intakes of students coming in, they've tightened up rorts that first developed under the Howard Government - and again, I'm sure you'll be honest enough to acknowledge that; they've tightened up rorts so there will be fewer students coming in, looking and assuming that they will get permanent residency. But even if she does absolutely nothing more, isn't it true that immigration will continue to come down sharply in the next two years?

TONY ABBOTT: Well there's a private sector forecast out, but there's no government forecast out, there are no government figures out and that same private sector forecast says it will be back to 250,000 in 2015 under the policies of the current government.

KERRY O'BRIEN: That's five years from now. But according to Immigration Department, net migration into Australia for the financial year just ended, is down to be between 230,000 and 250,000 from that 300,000 figure. According to the BIS Shrapnel report that you've just referred to, net migration down to 175,000 by June next year, 145,000 the following year. So it seems your new migration policy is already - is going to happen anyway, no matter who's in government?

TONY ABBOTT: Well if that's the case, why didn't Julia Gillard tell us this last week when she tried to have a conversation about population, but dishonestly pretended that population had nothing to do with immigration, even though two-thirds of our population increase is via immigration?

KERRY O'BRIEN: But are you prepared to acknowledge that these figures make clear that your policy will make no difference to the figures coming down over the next two years?

TONY ABBOTT: Well, last time I looked, Kerry, BIS Shrapnel don't set immigration policy. It's the Government that should set immigration policy. Under any government that I lead, the Government will clearly be in charge. The numbers'll be set firmly in Australia's national interest, it will be sustainable and there'll be a maximum of 170,000 in the first term of a Coalition government.

Friday, 30 July 2010

A sure sign that it's a slow news day is The Sydney Morning Herald's decision to give two codgers whose names resemble those of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition another run in today's paper.

Honestly, they add nothing new to the Herald's election coverage, so why were they given another appearance?

C'mon, Granny Herald, readers deserve better than having to sit down to a second serving of tripe.

Readers are not so desperate that they need this type of rubbish to fill any vacuums in their lives!

While all the world and his dog is accusing Kevin Rudd (or MPs allegedly still loyal to him) of leaking details of Cabinet meetings to journalist Laurie ‘I would talk to the devil himself to get a story’ Oakes, I'm more inclined to believe that these leaks have little to do with tensions remaining from the recent leadership change but are aimed squarely at Labor's electoral chances and have the Grech-like flavour of older motives with an anti-Labor bias.

Remember this The Daily Telegraph report from June 2008 when Rudd was Australian Prime Minister?

Ministerial deliberations are not held in a vacuum. They generate paper records which are written up by second and third parties. Given that the current leaked information does not appear to be derived from more recent Cabinet meetings, one has to wonder about the role of the public service or possibly disgruntled former or present political staffers in this affair.

I'm more than a tad tired of all that nonsense about Oz Prime Minister Julia Gillard being an unmarried, childless and godless sheila, so I was glad when Crikey's Bernard Keane took a scalpel to the mainstream media:

"The growing media obsession with both Julia Gillard's physical appearance and her marital status could be dismissed as indicative of both the essential inanity of the press and its casual sexism. That's certainly enough as it is. The media subjects female politicians to a blatant double standard, requiring them to conform to standards on physical presentation and lifestyle choices that are never applied to men. Moreover, it's not as if the media perpetuates a single stereotype to which female politicians must conform. Instead, it's a constantly changing set of requirements that means there's always something to criticise and the media always wins. Look too good, you're condemned as vacuous, or reliant on your appearance. Don't look good enough, you're disparaged as unattractive. Don't have a family, you're deliberately barren. Have a family, you're a career-obsessed harridan neglecting your kids. But it's more than that. The Australian yesterday launched a series of personal attacks on the Prime Minister, with the clear aim of ridiculing her and delegitimising her as a political figure. It complements an effort by Liberal Party figures to attack Gillard over her childlessness and her de facto marital status."

Thursday, 29 July 2010

"I vote for freedom of worship if the worship is of Jesus Christ or The Jewish God anyone else well they are worshipping a false god anyway so who cares.""Voting should only be voluntary for Liberal and National voters the rest can not bother since with every vote they bring the nation closer to the brink of disaster and closer to the hands of a (sic)muslim country.""I am going to win this seat. I claim it as mine and when I get in I will give my votes all of them to God who is on the side of the Liberal Right" Liberal candidate for Chifley David Barker on now deleted Facebook page news.com.au 25 July 2010

"The whole range of religions have made contact with my office to say they are very concerned about the stance of the Prime Minister, basically being anti-God. They don't like the fact we have got a godless Prime Minister." Sitting Liberal MP Don Randall The West 26 July 2010 [For those who can't believe their eyes the audio of these statements is at http://j.mp/arPfVh]

Those members of Tony Abbott's personal campaign team who appear to be playing the Gillard gender & lifestyle card 'off the record' with journalists, while their leader publicly condemns this type of comment.

Overheard some of the gentle gender at a local coffee shop:"Tony Abbott loves strong women ? Yeah, when they're wearing leather, stiletto boots and carrying a whip!""I don't know - perhaps he is likeable. I like watching his bald spot grow bigger and bigger each day. It's sort of like watching Pinocchio's nose."A conversation between two older women overheard on the local bus:"Tony Abbott is just a lair.... He's a sneaky b@stard.""The man hates women."Repeated to me over coffee:"A female friend refers to Abbott as 'Volkswagon' because his ears remind her of a small car with both doors open."

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

The current debate concerning Australia's population appears to have degenerated into an argument about asylum seekers, general immigration levels and skilled migration policy filtered though the lens of political opportunism in a federal election campaign.

When the real issues for this country are whether:a) we can afford to steadily expand our population numbers by birth/immigration and still retain our present excessive levels of both community and individual consumption;

b) we can sustainably resolve tensions between urban, industry and agricultural competition for natural resources; and

c) the state can ensure adequate public expenditure on both social needs and necessary infrastructure when average life expectancy has increased significantly and less children are being born than the natural increase required to create a robust tax base into the future.

It is always nice to feel wanted as you begin to implement plans to enter a small coastal town business community.The text of an email sent by one Yamba resident to the McDonald's licensee who will operate the new McDonald's eat-in and drive-through fast food outlet in Yamba at the mouth of the Clarence River on the NSW North Coast:Hello Mr. Campbell,I'm writing to you as I wonder why you would be PRing yourself saying you have had a great response from the Yamba people. The only ones you would get 'great response' from would be:* Those who believe they will get full time work and be able to get off the dole. I've crunched your numbers and very few would have the benefit of full time work from your Yamba store. * The sports groups who believe they will get all sorts of financial assistance from you.* Those who think that they all will move up the ladder in your store - I guess all 75-100 people you say you'll employ think they'll do that.As for the majority of us in Yamba (population around 6,000 as opposed to 40,000 in Ballina) - no amount of PR fools us into thinking you are actually wanted in town. Go on the highway - tell your bosses to enlarge their world-wide property portfolio in another town. You based your Yamba store numbers on your Ballina store! You admitted it! You PR yourself in the papers now saying you are 'considering' moving here. Would that be in response to the fact we publicised you live in Byron (a place that doesn't want your type of business) and operate a Ballina store? We are not fooled by the 'saviour' complex you and MacDonalds blab at each opportunity in regard to you moving into townships. Yamba doesn't need you nor want you. A small percentage are fooled and if you find that a 'great response' wait till you get here!Stay where you are. I guess you haven't wanted a MacDonalds in the town you live in. It does cheapen the place doesn't it!

Can our poor benighted Oz pollies go home until polling day on 21 August 2010?Maybe not. But yesterday's Essential Reportseems to suggest that those contesting 'safe' seats can at least go home early each day, because a great many of us have probably firmly made up our minds about which party we will favour with our votes:51% of respondents said they had already decided which party to vote for and a further 32% said they would decide before election day – 10% will make their decision on election day. 61% of Labor voters and 65% of Liberal voters say they have already decided compared to 53% of Greens voters.Younger voters are less likely to have decided which party to vote for – only 38% of under 35’s have already decided, 36% will decide before election day, 10% on election day and 16% do not know when they will decide.

I really shouldn't laugh, but the sight of former Nationals candidate Chris Gulaptis' photo posted on Sportingbet Deciderin 2010 instead of current Nationals candidate, Kevin Hogan, was unexpected to say the least.

"The survey was conducted in March-April 2010 using a convenience sample of 559 people who completed an anonymous questionnaire.

The most common diagnoses reported were depression (40%), bipolar disorder (22%), anxiety (13%), and schizophrenia (12%)........

Over 50% of respondents to the survey, however, reported that mental illness had cut short their education, and they had not been offered support to continue this later.....

Most respondents (75%) were Centrelink clients. Of these, two-thirds (66%) were dissatisfied with the help provided by Centrelink and the disability employment services to which they referred people. Centrelink staff often did not understand the impact of mental illness, it was reported.

Many employment service staff also had difficulty understanding the needs of clients with mental illness, or had unrealistic expectations of them.......

Over half of the respondents (52%) reported that they did not feel part of their local community. Many reported that they had been treated disrespectfully at some time because of their mental illness (42%).

A 'digital divide' was also identified. While 72% of the general population use the Internet from home to engage with others, only 47% of respondents reported being able to do this.......

In summary

Many people with a mental illness experience disruption of their education, and receive no support to resume this.

Centrelink and employment service staff are inadequately supported and trained to help people with a mental illness find work.

People with a mental illness often feel they are not part of their local community, and are not welcome there. They are also far less likely to be connected to others because of a lack of Internet access.

Most people with a mental illness do not know where to go for help regarding discrimination, or find the process unhelpful. While other groups in society are protected from vilification (on grounds of religion or culture, for example), this protection is unavailable to people with a disability.

It all started on the second day of the Federal Election campaign. I woke to find the world bathed in a strange half light and eerie music playing tinnily in my ear.

Then those emails started:

"Caller Lorraine says Julia Gillard was featured in the Launceston weekend paper doing a Nazi salute and that this is not the first time she has done this". {Quote from Crikey news email on 19th July 2010}

"She's a secret NAZI. When she thinks nobody will notice she heils." {Chain email 18th July 2010}

ABC Newsonline 19 July 2010:On Saturday, as the election was being called, Mr Abbott moved to neutralise that scare, promising that WorkChoices was "dead, buried and cremated" and to make sure a Coalition government would keep Labor's law, The Fair Work Act, in place for its first term in office. "The Coalition won't change the Fair Work Act, at least for the duration of the next parliament, at least for the three-year life of the next parliament," he said.On Saturday Mr Abbott told Melbourne radio 3AW he will put the death of WorkChoices in writing if it will help."Give me a bit of paper, I'll sign it here. Dead, buried, cremated," he said.But this morning on ABC's AM, Mr Abbott caused confusion by saying he would never, ever make changes to the Fair Work Act, rather than giving a guarantee of three years."We have no plans, no plans whatsoever to make any changes to the legislation. Not now, not ever," he said."As far as I'm concerned, I have no plans for any change to the laws, not now, not next year, not the year after, not ever."However the issue of WorkChoices did not die. Just an hour later on 3AW he was not giving that guarantee.When asked how long he would guarantee not to touch the laws, Mr Abbott said he could not say that he would never change them."Obviously I can't say that there will never, ever, ever, for 100 or a 1,000 years time be any change to any aspect of industrial legislation, but the Fair Work Act will not be amended in the next term of the government if we are in power," he said. This afternoon he was back to saying Labor's law would stay in place beyond just one term."You cannot bring back WorkChoices, other than through legislation," Mr Abbott said."The legislation will not change, not today, not tomorrow, not next year, or the year after, not in three years time, not in ten years time."Abbott's doorstop on 19 July did not rule out a return of regulations similar to those which accompanied the Howard Government's WorkChoices which allowed for punitive individual employment contracts and summary dismissal in certain circumstances.

Asked about a pledge in his budget reply to remove the unfair dismissal burden from the back of small business, he said: ''I think that there are provisions within the existing legislation to make our workplaces fairer and more flexible.''

Then on 21 July Abbott exposed his political rear by saying he will create law which supersedes certain provisions of Fair Work legislation.The Daily Telegraph reported on 24 July 2010:Support for the coalition has fallen over the past fortnight, with the latest Nielson poll putting Labor ahead 54-46 on a two-party preferred basis. Labor also leads 58-42 per cent among women voters, and is tied 50-50 with men.

If the Liberal-Nationals Coalition wins government on 21 August 2010 will party leaders Tony Abbott and Warren Truss support Australian Government legal proceedings currently underway in The Hague (lodged in order to protect whales in the Southern Ocean) or will they cravenly withdraw the application?

Saturday, 24 July 2010

"And so today I announce that if we are re-elected, I will develop a dedicated process – a Citizens' Assembly – to examine over 12 months the evidence on climate change, the case for action and the possible consequences of introducing a market-based approach to limiting and reducing carbon emissions."{'Moving foward together on climate change' speech on 23rd July 2010} That rumbling sound followed by a slight tilt to the floor which you experienced after Prime Minister Gillard finished her climate change policy speech was caused by thousands of Aussies running towards The Green's camp.Insulting the intelligence of the average voter can't have been intentional surely? Telling us all that 150 hand-picked wankers are worth more than we are - after the majority of us voted for climate change action in 2007 and have doggedly held on ever since despite denialist propaganda flooding the mainstream media and blogosphere.Waaay to go Juuuulia!

This exchange in The Sydney Morning Herald letters column on 20 July 2010 was emailed to me this week:

List of never-to-be forgiven wrongsThere are three things I can never forgive:1. The Greens voting with the Coalition against the emissions trading scheme.2. The Labor Party giving in to the mining giants.3. Mick Keelty and the Australian Federal Police letting Scott Rush get on that plane (''Rush writes as his last-ditch appeal is lodged'', July 17-18).

Kay Rocavert DrummoyneI move, as an addendum to Kay Rocavert's crimes and misdemeanours motion (Letters, July 19), that the name Steve Fielding be indelibly marked in reverse print on the foreheads of all Labor Party machine personnel.

Col Shephard Yamba

This also came from the same reader (Hat tip to R's Dad):"Usually the first time people meet me they call me Tony Abbott. It gets a bit of a laugh, that's about it. Then I tell them I prefer Anthony."I voted Labor at the last election. I think I will be voting Liberal this time. But I'm fairly open-minded. I guess I could sway."Most elections come down to a jingle: it's time for change. And that's a bit old. I'd like to see more policies."I believe more in the Bill Gates effect than the labour effect. If you come up with the right idea, I can't understand why you shouldn't make a billion dollars. But Labor expect that money for the country."I'm not particularly racial at all but I think they should send the lot [of asylum seekers] back and get them to apply through the proper channels. If you let one in, or three in, you might as well let them all in."[The Sydney Morning Herald 20 July 2010]

Friday, 23 July 2010

A chunk of Stephen Mayne's announcement emailed out in the early hours of this morning:

Shareholder activist, local government councillor, Crikey founder and former Liberal staffer Stephen Mayne turned 41 today and announced he is running as an independent candidate for the Senate in Victoria on a Nick Xenophon-style anti-pokies platform after the Rudd-Gillard government failed to act on sweeping Productivity Commission recommendations.

Mayne says Australians are the world's biggest gamblers on a per capita basis and Victoria's biggest pokies venue, the Woolworths-run Werribee Plaza Tavern, is located in Julia Gillard's seat of Lalor. He also says the family of the third Liberal-National Senate candidate in Victoria, Julian McGauran, owns a pokies venue, the Millers Inn, in Julia Gillard's home suburb of Altona where gamblers lost a staggering $13.2 million in 2008-09.

"Pokies are arguably the greatest social scourge in Julia Gillard's working class seat of Lalor, but she doesn't seem to care. At least Kevin Rudd declared he 'hates' the pokies before failing to do anything meaningful," Mayne said.

Lalor takes in the local council areas of Wyndham and Melton where working class people, many of them vulnerable females, lost $79 million and $42 million respectively on the pokies in 2008-09.

Mayne is calling for the Labor Party to sell the four pokies venues it owns and runs in Canberra and he'll be directing preferences to which ever party declares the toughest action against pokies in this campaign with the Productivity Commission recommendations being the benchmark which needs to be followed.

"If the Productivity Commission recommends a $1 maximum bet and the Tasmanian Liberals took that policy to the recent state election, then there is no reason why the two major Federal parties can't do likewise," Mayne said.....

Full list of all political and corporate elections contested by the newest Steve.

For years an inaccurate and nastily xenophobic email has been circulating around the world and, adapted for Australia, it has turned up in Inboxes on the NSW North Coast from time to time.Here is one version posted on a blog in May 2020 asIf you cross the US border...Now that the Australian federal election campaign has begun, the editor of the Tweed Daily News should exercise some care, because that same piece of arrant nonsense is turning up within that newspaper's pages.From the Tweed Daily News letters to the editor published on 19 July 2010:

No room for immigrants

MUCH is being made of illegal immigration, be it by boat or plane. My belief is until all homeless Australian-born citizens are catered for, all Australian young people can get a real job, our immigration intake should be zero.

If you cross the North Korean border illegally you get 12 years hard labour.

If you cross the Iranian border illegally you are detained indefinitely.

If you cross the Afghan border illegally, you get shot.

If you cross the Saudi Arabian border illegally you will be jailed.

If you cross the Chinese border illegally you may never be heard of again.

If you cross the Cuban border illegally you will be thrown into a political prison to rot.

If you cross the Australian border illegally you get: a job; an interpreter; free legal aid; a driver's licence; social security number; welfare; free education and free health care.

All at the expense of the Australian taxpayer.

With back-flip Gillard champing at the bit for a federal election, perhaps the locally based federal member could inform us what welfare payments illegal boat people receive. I am sure Australian-born pensioners who are battling to exist would.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
[Adopted and proclaimed by United Nations General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948]

NSW North Coast

Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Moggy Musings

Hi! My name is Boy. I'm a male bi-coloured tabby cat. Ever since I discovered that Malcolm Turnbull's dogs were allowed to blog, I have been pestering Clarencegirl to allow me a small space on North Coast Voices.

A false flag musing: I have noticed one particular voice on Facebook which is Pollyanna-positive on the subject of the Port of Yamba becoming a designated cruise ship destination. What this gentleman doesn’t disclose is that, as a principal of Middle Star Pty Ltd, he could be thought to have a potential pecuniary interest due to the fact that this corporation (which has had an office in Grafton since 2012) provides consultancy services and tourismbusiness development services.

A religion & local government musing: On 11 October 2017 Clarence Valley Council has the Church of Jesus Christ Development Fund Inc in Sutherland Local Court No. 6 for a small claims hearing. It would appear that there may be a little issue in rendering unto Caesar. On 19 September 2017 an ordained minister of a religion (which was named by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in relation to 40 instances of historical child sexual abuse on the NSW North Coast) read the Opening Prayer at Council’s ordinary monthly meeting. Earlier in the year an ordained minister (from a church network alleged to have supported an overseas orphanage closed because of child abuse claims in 2013) read the Opening Prayer and an ordained minister (belonging to yet another church network accused of ignoring child sexual abuse in the US and racism in South Africa) read the Opening Prayer at yet another ordinary monthly meeting. Nice one councillors - you are covering yourselves with glory!

An investigative musing: Newcastle Herald, 12 August 2017: The state’s corruption watchdog has been asked to investigate the finances of the Awabakal Aboriginal Local Land Council, less than 12 months after the troubled organisation was placed into administration by the state government. The Newcastle Herald understands accounting firm PKF Lawler made the decision to refer the land council to the Independent Commission Against Corruption after discovering a number of irregularities during an audit of its financial statements.The results of the audit were recently presented to a meeting of Awabakal members. Administrator Terry Lawler did not respond when contacted by the Herald and a PKF Lawler spokesperson said it was unable to comment on the matter. Given the intricate web of company relationships that existed with at least one former board member it is not outside the realms of possibility that, if ICAC accepts this referral, then United Land Councils Limited (registered New Zealand) and United First Peoples Syndications Pty Ltd(registered Australia) might be interviewed. North Coast Voices readers will remember that on 15 August 2015 representatives of these two companied gave evidence before NSW Legislative Council General Purpose Standing Committee No. 6 INQUIRY INTO CROWN LAND. This evidence included advocating for a Yamba mega port.

A Nationals musing: Word around the traps is that NSW Nats MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis has been talking up the notion of cruise ships visiting the Clarence River estuary. Fair dinkum! That man can be guaranteed to run with any bad idea put to him. I'm sure one or more cruise ships moored in the main navigation channel on a regular basis for one, two or three days is something other regular river users will really welcome. *pause for appreciation of irony* The draft of the smallest of the smaller cruise vessels is 3 metres and it would only stay safely afloat in that channel. Even the Yamba-Iluka ferry has been known to get momentarily stuck in silt/sand from time to time in Yamba Bay and even a very small cruise ship wouldn't be able to safely enter and exit Iluka Bay. You can bet your bottom dollar operators of cruise lines would soon be calling for dredging at the approach to the river mouth - and you know how well that goes down with the local residents.

A local councils musing: Which Northern Rivers council is on a low-key NSW Office of Local Government watch list courtesy of feet dragging by a past general manager?

A serial pest musing: I'm sure the Clarence Valley was thrilled to find that a well-known fantasist is active once again in the wee small hours of the morning treading a well-worn path of accusations involving police, local business owners and others.

An investigative musing: Which NSW North Coast council is batting to have the longest running code of conduct complaint investigation on record?

A which bank? musing: Despite a net profit last year of $9,227 million the Commonwealth Bank still insists on paying below Centrelink deeming rates interest on money held in Pensioner Security Accounts. One local wag says he’s waiting for the first bill from the bank charging him for the privilege of keeping his pension dollars at that bank.

A Daily Examiner musing: Just when you thought this newspaper could sink no lower under News Corp management, it continues to give column space to Andrew Bolt.

A thought to ponder musing: In case of bushfire or flood - do you have an emergency evacuation plan for the family pet?

An adoption musing: Every week on the NSW North Coast a number of cats and dogs find themselves without a home. If you want to do your bit and give one bundle of joy a new family, contact Happy Paws on 0419 404 766 or your local council pound.